The Bahrain Grand Prix finished behind the Safety Car, but would Lewis Hamilton have been able to keep his lead had it been restarted?
The race winners’ tyres were twice as old as those of his closest pursuer, Max Verstappen, and the hard compound rather than the medium. When the Safety Car was deployed in reaction to Sergio Perez’s stoppage, Mercedes gambled that the race wouldn’t be restarted and didn’t bring Hamilton in for a tyre change.That paid off. But had they been able to resume the race with a lap to go, Verstappen might have had the chance to use his faster tyres to attack him.
Valtteri Bottas endured another luckless race, picking up a pair of punctures on his way to eighth place. At his final pit stop Mercedes switched him back to his original set of medium tyres, but as he’d punctured the front-right on this set, they did not re-fit that tyre. He therefore took just three tyres at his final pit stop.
His misfortune meant he sank six places during the race. The biggest climbed was Carlos Sainz Jnr, who made up 10 places to grab a valuable sixth place for McLaren, following his own dose of bad luck in qualifying.
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2020 Bahrain Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
2020 Bahrain Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Valtteri Bottas | 2 | -4 | -6 |
Sebastian Vettel | 11 | -4 | -2 |
Charles Leclerc | 12 | 2 | 2 |
Max Verstappen | 3 | 1 | 1 |
Alexander Albon | 4 | 0 | 1 |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 15 | 2 | 10 |
Lando Norris | 9 | 0 | 5 |
Daniel Ricciardo | 6 | 1 | -1 |
Esteban Ocon | 7 | -1 | -2 |
Daniil Kvyat | 10 | -9 | -1 |
Pierre Gasly | 8 | 1 | 2 |
Sergio Perez | 5 | 2 | -13 |
Lance Stroll | 13 | 1 | |
Kimi Raikkonen | 17 | 0 | 2 |
Antonio Giovinazzi | 16 | 5 | 0 |
Romain Grosjean | 19 | ||
Kevin Magnussen | 18 | 4 | 1 |
George Russell | 14 | -4 | 2 |
Nicholas Latifi | 20 | 4 | 6 |
2020 Bahrain Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2020 Bahrain Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’32.014 | 48 | |
2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’32.827 | 0.813 | 38 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’32.864 | 0.850 | 38 |
4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’33.352 | 1.338 | 28 |
5 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’33.411 | 1.397 | 46 |
6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’33.573 | 1.559 | 43 |
7 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’33.588 | 1.574 | 53 |
8 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’33.625 | 1.611 | 44 |
9 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’33.629 | 1.615 | 40 |
10 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull-Honda | 1’33.684 | 1.670 | 41 |
11 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’33.861 | 1.847 | 41 |
12 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’34.141 | 2.127 | 35 |
13 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’34.354 | 2.340 | 37 |
14 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’34.536 | 2.522 | 22 |
15 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’34.591 | 2.577 | 39 |
16 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’34.817 | 2.803 | 48 |
17 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.042 | 3.028 | 47 |
18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.241 | 3.227 | 29 |
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2020 Bahrain Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | Stint 5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | C3 (19) | C3 (16) | C2 (22) | ||
Max Verstappen | C3 (1) | C3 (19) | C2 (14) | C2 (12) | C3 (11) |
Alexander Albon | C3 (1) | C3 (18) | C3 (15) | C2 (23) | |
Pierre Gasly | C3 (1) | C2 (24) | C2 (32) | ||
Daniel Ricciardo | C3 (16) | C2 (20) | C2 (21) | ||
Valtteri Bottas | C3 (4) | C2 (21) | C3 (13) | C3 (19) | |
Lando Norris | C3 (18) | C3 (20) | C2 (19) | ||
Esteban Ocon | C3 (1) | C3 (16) | C3 (17) | C2 (23) | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | C4 (1) | C4 (20) | C3 (18) | C2 (18) | |
Charles Leclerc | C2 (1) | C3 (22) | C2 (17) | C2 (16) | |
Antonio Giovinazzi | C3 (1) | C3 (19) | C2 (33) | C4 (3) | |
Sebastian Vettel | C3 (1) | C2 (19) | C3 (19) | C2 (17) | |
Nicholas Latifi | C2 (1) | C3 (20) | C3 (16) | C2 (19) | |
George Russell | C3 (1) | C3 (19) | C2 (19) | C3 (17) | |
Daniil Kvyat | C3 (1) | C4 (16) | C2 (16) | C2 (23) | |
Kimi Raikkonen | C3 (1) | C3 (16) | C2 (23) | C3 (16) | |
Kevin Magnussen | C3 (1) | C2 (2) | C2 (24) | C2 (26) | C4 (3) |
Sergio Perez | C3 (1) | C3 (19) | C2 (16) | C2 (17) | |
Lance Stroll | C3 (1) | C3 (1) | |||
Romain Grosjean |
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2020 Bahrain Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took (excludes drivers changing tyres on the first lap):
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 23.848 | 34 | |
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 23.906 | 0.058 | 46 |
3 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 24.024 | 0.176 | 37 |
4 | George Russell | Williams | 24.029 | 0.181 | 20 |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 24.061 | 0.213 | 19 |
6 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 24.076 | 0.228 | 17 |
7 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri | 24.135 | 0.287 | 33 |
8 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 24.145 | 0.297 | 20 |
9 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 24.172 | 0.324 | 19 |
10 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 24.248 | 0.400 | 21 |
11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 24.317 | 0.469 | 20 |
12 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 24.345 | 0.497 | 35 |
13 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 24.398 | 0.550 | 25 |
14 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 24.511 | 0.663 | 21 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 24.589 | 0.741 | 36 |
16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 24.617 | 0.769 | 16 |
17 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 24.622 | 0.774 | 20 |
18 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 24.666 | 0.818 | 38 |
19 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 24.675 | 0.827 | 38 |
20 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 24.679 | 0.831 | 18 |
21 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 24.734 | 0.886 | 25 |
22 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 24.774 | 0.926 | 20 |
23 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 24.817 | 0.969 | 36 |
24 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 24.836 | 0.988 | 53 |
25 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 24.855 | 1.007 | 40 |
26 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 24.936 | 1.088 | 4 |
27 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 25.199 | 1.351 | 23 |
28 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 25.254 | 1.406 | 34 |
29 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 25.270 | 1.422 | 40 |
30 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 25.444 | 1.596 | 39 |
31 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 25.502 | 1.654 | 39 |
32 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 25.793 | 1.945 | 53 |
33 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 25.924 | 2.076 | 27 |
34 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 26.950 | 3.102 | 34 |
35 | George Russell | Williams | 27.146 | 3.298 | 39 |
36 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 32.278 | 8.430 | 17 |
37 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri | 37.317 | 13.469 | 17 |
38 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 38.297 | 14.449 | 3 |
BasCB (@bascb)
30th November 2020, 9:02
Wait, so Bottas had 3 tyres that did 8 laps and one tyre that had done over 20 laps? I didn’t know they were even allowed to do that!
Mikey
2nd December 2020, 3:13
I didn’t think they were allowed to mix sets either.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
30th November 2020, 10:51
It was a different Renault at the end of the race. Sainz went past like a they were standing still after the first stops then Ric was matching the Mclarens and Perez in the final stints, with Ocon not too far off. Perhaps tuned for low fuel running.